From its origins years ago as the Crystal Ice Cream site, The Creamery development will feature contemporary urban flats with prices starting in the $400,000 range.

"It's a lifestyle move," said Michael Paris, owner and president of BlackPine Communities, the project developer. "We're getting first-time buyers. We're getting a lot of professionals. We are attracting a lot of folks in the medical industry, as well as empty-nesters and retirement people."

The new development will offer roof-top patios and even a dog park. The model units will be completed by the end of August, but the construction is just the beginning of a movement to bring 10,000 new housing units to Sacramento's downtown urban core.

Sacramento's Railyards project just announced an anchor tenant with a Kaiser Permanente Hospital, but it will also include new housing.

"There will be 6,000 apartments that could be another 10,000 to 12,000 people," said Larry Kelley of Downtown Railyard Ventures. "So it's going to be a very vibrant 24-hour area."

Residential units at 14th and C streets, known as Chinatown Alley, have sales pending, according to Dave Pajouhesh of Arcade Homes.

Pajouhesh told KCRA 3 he had two units now in demand ranging in price from $570,000 to $590,000.

The new growth is spurred in part by Sacramento's downtown arena, the Golden 1 Center.

"It did increase property values," said Sacramento's Urban Design Manager Bruce Monighan. "It got people interested in buying and looking at opportunity. It clearly freed up money that's been sitting on the sidelines."

Now some of that money is invested in infill housing that's expected to double Sacramento's downtown population in the next decade.

"Historically, pre-war, we were around 60,000 people in downtown," Monighan said. "By the time we got into the 1960s, we were down to about 20,000 people downtown. The goal here is to put another 20,000 to 30,000 people and then we'll have a vibrant downtown."